US Issues First Passport With 'X' Gender Marker. Recipient A US Navy Veteran

<p><strong>New Delhi: </strong><span style="font-weight: 400;">The United States of America has issued the first American passport with an "X" gender marker.&nbsp;</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The State Department said the objective is to give non-binary, intersex and gender-nonconforming people a gender marker other than male or female on their travel document, Reuters reported.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">India already offers a third gender on documents, as do Canada, Germany and Australia.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had announced in June that the X marker would be offered as an option on American passports.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In a statement, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said the US is adding the "X" gender marker as an option for those applying for passports or Consular Reports of Birth Abroad.</span></p> <h3><strong>The First Recipient&nbsp;</strong></h3> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">While Price did not identify the person holding the first "X" gender passport, Reuters reported that civil rights organisation Lambda Legal said its client Dana Zzyym, a US Navy veteran, is the recipient.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"I almost burst into tears when I opened the envelope, pulled out my new passport, and saw the 'X' stamped boldly under 'sex'," the Reuters report quoted the intersex and nonbinary person has having said in a statement.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"It took six years, but to have an accurate passport, one that doesn&rsquo;t force me to identify as male or female but recognizes I am neither, is liberating."</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"><br /></span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Zzyym uses gender-neutral pronouns "they," "them" and "their".&nbsp;</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">According to Lambda Legal, Zzyym was born with ambiguous sex characteristics, and had to undergo several "irreversible, painful, and medically unnecessary surgeries" because their parents decided to raise them as a boy.</span></p>